Even before he designed our new Ken Fulk x Urban Electric Co. lighting collection, Ken Fulk had been a steady collaborator of ours for years. His interiors are joyful and dynamic and marked by thoughtful deliberation—and whether he’s designing a coffee shop, a hotel, an event or a members-only social club, he always packs plenty of surprises to heighten the experience. Below, is from a recent conversation we conducted with the visionary designer, in which he shares thoughts on everything from product development to the value of teamwork to maximizing creativity during the pandemic to the other future endeavors he plans to roll out.

So many things to discuss … but let’s start with the most immediate: the new collection we recently developed. What made you want to do a lighting collection? 

Anything that we do is about relationships, and Urban Electric is an exemplar, with delightfully down to earth, talented people with integrity—the kind of company that you just like working with. And, you know, we’ve had a relationship with you all for many years, and during that time we’ve done numerous custom installations in both residential and hospitality spaces. This was a natural progression. 

When it comes down to it, I don't have any great desire to just slap my name on something for the sake of having product out there, but I do have an interest in working with other people who intrigue me and inspire me, and to be able to collaborate is the joy of what we do.

TOPPER

CROWN

SHAKO

In a sentence or two, can you describe the difference between designing product and designing spaces? 

When we design anything—whether it's a product, a residence, a hotel or a wedding—we launch into the process the same exact way. We start with a narrative. We literally write words on paper. I call them movies, movies in my mind—I don't know why, but I've always called them that because they have this cinematic-like plot. Those become a guide post for our work. Sometimes it's a few sentences.  Sometimes it's pages of notes. Sometimes we share it with our clients and develop this narrative that becomes this story of their lives. And other times, it's just this internal working document that provides a framework for us to say what we are doing. From there, we begin to fill in imagery or drawings and really bring the vision to life. But throughout the process, we often reference back to that initial process and say, ‘Is this part of our movie?’.  It's a way of getting a real team of amazing people on the same page without limiting creativity, and that's how we start a collection of product, too. I don't even like the word product, by the way...

Besides that evocative cinematic process, how else did you approach the lighting collection. What was the inspiration?

I've always seen lighting as sort of being the jewelry in a project—the pieces that sparkle. And looking at lighting that way, as a finishing touch and a first impression statement, spoke to us in terms of creating a sense of atmosphere and identity. Hats are similar. I'm always into fashion, and lights feel like something I would put on top to finish off and elevate a look by literally capping off the whole ensemble. So that’s where we got the idea for the collection: If you apply these fixtures as jewelry or hats or headdresses that a project, or a building, or a house or a restaurant or a hotel might wear, what would be most impactful. 

We certainly pull historical references, too, especially on one of my latest projects—which we worked with Urban Electric on, as well—a social club and gathering place called The Quin in Boston. It is located within a giant, historic asset of American architecture, and we wanted to bring it forward and have it feel fresh and interesting but also honor and pay tribute to its past. Basically, we really did not want to screw it up. So, while we were doing this lighting collection, we were also working on this project and thinking about some of those beautiful, Gilded Age references, then boiling them down into something relatively pure and simple. That took the finishing touch aspect and rooted it more in form and materiality so that the designs aren’t meant to be just about ornamentation.